One of the oldest types of low-waste peeler is shaped similar to a knife and has a holding shank on which a cutting blade is provided on the axial extension of an elongated grip. The cutting blade is provided with a slot. A cutting edge is provided on one side of the slot while the other side of the slot serves as a guide. Peeling thickness is accordingly limited by this type of peeler and one may avoid cutting off unnecessarily thick peels when using this type of peeler.
Besides the above-mentioned low-waste peeler, another type of low-waste peeler was developed about 50 years ago, which is particularly widespread today. This type of low-waste peeler consists of a grip and a swinging blade, which is held in a fork-like mounting in a pivotally movable manner. An example of this type of low-waste peeler is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,986,813, wherein the grip and the mounting are formed from a single metal strip. This extremely inexpensive version of a low-waste peeler is also very widespread today. In contrast to this version, another type of low-waste peeler exists in the market today wherein the grip and the fork-like mounting of the peeler are made of a single plastic part, and wherein the grip resembles the shape of a common screwdriver grip. The fork-like mounting, on which the swinging blade is mounted, is integrally formed with the grip and the swinging blade runs perpendicular to the running direction of the grip.
The above-described low-waste peelers are kitchen utensils that have limited utility. These low-waste peelers may not be practically used for any other purposes other than removing peels from certain vegetables. Most of these low-waste peelers are provided with inadequate auxiliary tools for removing eyes from potatoes. These auxiliary tools are generally lug-like cut-out tools attached to the peeler's fork-like mounting. Not only are these auxiliary tools designed extremely poorly, but they are also arranged incorrectly with respect to the movements to be performed. The low-waste peelers of interest here are designed in a way so that the peeling movement is a simple pulling movement. The cut-out lugs on these low-waste peelers of interest may be arranged laterally so that the lugs may be easily applied by way of rotational movement of a user's hand. In real life, these cut-out lugs are hardly used, and the potato eyes are usually removed either with a conventional knife or by peeling over the eye several times with the potato peeler. Although this can be done quickly, more substance of the potato is removed than necessary in this manner and the advantage of the low-waste peeler is therefore lost.
Further, previous low-waste peelers designs were mainly intended for the peeling of potatoes. However, it is now common to use low-waste peelers to peel various fruits and vegetables, such as cucumbers, carrots, melons, and various tropical and subtropical fruits. It is therefore desirable to provide a low-waste peeler with an auxiliary tool which may be used to efficiently prepare a variety of vegetables and fruits.